


In the dead of night

by treeheart



Category: INFINITE (Band)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Mystery, Romance, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:08:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23597347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treeheart/pseuds/treeheart
Summary: A city initiates a friendship project to repair strained relations between alphas and omegas by pairing every alpha with an omega.Everything does not go quite as planned when two alphas are accidentally paired together.
Relationships: Kim Sunggyu/Nam Woohyun
Comments: 43
Kudos: 77





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> My attempt at this abo thing, except its not really abo at all if you really think about it? I guess? Please comment (i LOVE comments) and I hope you enjoy thanks!

It was a dark hot night, and the downtown streets of one cozy little city were deserted. Almost all the shops and restaurants closed before 10pm in this small town and it was currently past midnight. In the distance footsteps—running, could be heard, gasps of air—someone running for their life.

Nam Woohyun could feel the sweat dripping down the back of his neck as he raced across a closed grocery store and turned a corner. He pressed his back to the brick wall of the shop building, eyes darting both ways as he pulled out his vibrating phone from a side pocket on his black joggers.

The caller ID said: Kim Sunggyu.

Woohyun muttered something under his breath and answered the call.

“Where the hell _are_ you?”

~~»«~~

One month earlier…

When Kim Sunggyu walked into the Instagram worthy café, complete with indoor ivy cascading from ceiling hung pots, and fairy lights warmly making the walls glow, he didn’t quite know what to expect. All he knew was that he was supposed to meet the person he had been matched up with.

No, he wasn’t there because of an online dating app or something. But rather, a project formed by the small up and coming city he resided in. Relations between alphas and omegas had been getting more tense and bitter in recent years, what with the relative wealth disparity between alphas in general and well….everyone else. It also didn’t help that the top stories in the news every evening included some sort of assault or attack on an omega, almost always caused by alphas, despite both alphas and omegas being required to take suppressants to control their urges and heats respectively.

In response, the local government launched a city-wide pairing project that required every alpha and every omega to be paired together with someone of a similar age range. There were rules that it wasn’t intended to be romantic or sexual, but a way to ease hostility and tension and form friendships and understanding between alphas and omegas. Because of this most pairings were same gendered, because the government didn’t seem to take homosexual relations or that possibility into account and were a little backwards minded in that area.

So, all Sunggyu knew was that he was supposed to be there to meet some man and become his friend because the government told him to. It felt a bit…well, stupid to him. But it was basically mandatory so he had no choice. He didn’t really care for alphas and thought most of them were stupid. He also didn’t care much for omegas either. He just mostly wanted to mind his own business, but unfortunately that wasn’t really an option.

“Kim Sunggyu-sshi?” Sunggyu looked up from where he was sitting on a stool at what was apparently a communal table at the center of the café. The man standing before him was wearing a black sweatshirt and black ripped jeans that were folded on the bottoms over a pair of sneakers. Sunggyu didn’t want to say it, but he was really, _really_ attractive, like almost standard alpha attractive. But he didn’t really have the haughty arrogance of an alpha. It was odd though because he didn’t really have the fragrance of an alpha _or_ an omega.

Sunggyu raised an eyebrow. “Nam Woohyun?”

Woohyun nodded with a relieved smile, his hands folded in front of him rather politely. “So, I guess we’re paired up then.”

“Wait,” Sunggyu got out his paperwork with his assigned partner name and everything on it and scanned through it. Nowhere did it say he was being partnered with another alpha. _“Maybe it’s just my mistake…”_ He wondered as Woohyun handed him his work card. Everyone had a work card that generally gave simple information about them like their full name, email address, job and whether they were an alpha, omega or beta.

It said alpha. Right there, in clear writing.

Sunggyu stared at it, turned to Woohyun, then stared back at the card.

“I think…there might be some mistake here?”

~~»«~~

Woohyun called up the registration office and they were informed that there were some mix-ups when assigning pairings and that they should just go along with it until everything was properly sorted.

“Go along with it?” Sunggyu frowned. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Woohyun shrugged and looked down at his shoes.

“ _Oh great, I got one of the stupid ones…”_ Sunggyu thought with a sigh. Though that didn’t mean much to Sunggyu because most alphas seemed like meat headed idiots to him.

Yes, Sunggyu was an alpha, but that didn’t stop him from hating every other alpha in existence.

Sunggyu didn’t always hate being an alpha, though. He admitted there were many benefits and privileges. In fact, he was a relatively normal oblivious child until he entered the terrible world of being a preteen. 

It was an average seeming day for sixth grader Sunggyu when he got home from school early one afternoon and rushed into his father’s study to show him a good grade he had gotten on a test. Unfortunately, he walked in on his father _fucking_ his male secretary over the desk. Both he and his father never talked about it and Sunggyu buried it deep into the crevices of his brain somewhere to forget it.

But then high school came, good ole high school filled to the brim with raging hormones. There was always talk in the boys’ bathroom about someone being in heat or something, but Sunggyu didn’t really care to pay attention to it. Sunggyu had dated a few alpha girls and it was all good fun but nothing serious. But then a girl came around—one he really liked, but she was an omega. There was nothing wrong with that, but there was something wrong with walking by the school’s storage room and spotting that same girl, obviously in heat, being molested by not one but two male student alphas. Sunggyu was stunned, shocked, but he couldn’t look away or make a sound or do anything and before he realized it, he had a boner. Then he ran and ran all the way home and holed himself up in his bedroom. He didn’t understand why he didn’t do anything.

He was a coward, he knew this.

And worse, getting aroused by it. He wasn’t only a coward, he was a disgusting perverted coward.

And from there the internalized disgust of alphas blossomed. He went full force into taking suppressants and avoided omegas at all costs. And the memory of the girl he couldn’t protect weighed on him to the point where he got pissed off every time he saw an alpha flirting or doing anything that could be perceived as such with an omega. Sometimes he would step in, but he found he was still far too cowardly to always take a stand.

~~»«~~

“So, uh…” Woohyun awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. “Should we still hang out or…?”

“It’s not like we have to.” Sunggyu got up to leave.

“But they said to go along with it...” Woohyun tried to say, but Sunggyu had already left.

Woohyun didn’t really know what to do at that point, so he decided to just go home. However, the moment he stepped out of the café he couldn’t help but feel like someone was following him. He subtly turned around to check but saw nothing out of the ordinary and no one behind him. Rubbing the back of his neck self consciously, he quickened his pace. The sun was already about to set, so he didn’t have much time.

He was attempting to think of a plan of what he would do for the night, when his friend Dongwoo, also an alpha, and an all around fun loving guy texted him. He was inviting Woohyun to a party later that evening. Woohyun texted back that he wasn’t sure. Woohyun wasn’t really a party person. Sure he liked hanging out with his friends but he ended up preferring small gatherings or even friendly soccer matches. And Dongwoo’s parties tended to be well…wild.

Dongwoo texted again.

**There’ll be lots of hot girls!!**

Woohyun sighed to himself. He didn’t know why Dongwoo would think that would entice him at all at this point. Woohyun hadn’t necessarily ever come out to Dongwoo per se, but he basically made it obvious in every way he could that he preferred men. Sometimes he wondered if Dongwoo was in denial about it.

Regardless, he figured he kind of had to go to Dongwoo’s party since he didn’t know how else to find a place surrounded by alphas—aka the only place he could be safe at night.


	2. Two

Before Nam Woohyun was born, his mother dreamt of persimmon trees, symbolizing a daughter on the way. But then Woohyun came, and his mother treated him no different. She had already bought too many pairs of baby-sized pink pants to turn back anyways. Woohyun spent his toddler and young childhood years exploring all avenues, he learned to cook with his mother and aunties and learned to love being in the kitchen. He also learned to play soccer and sing and sew and read and write. Because of this, he learned not to differentiate, based on genders, or any other difference.

But then puberty struck.

Woohyun then learned the difference between alphas and omegas. The way the world treated them differently. However, Woohyun refused to abide by these standards. He chose not to take alpha suppressants like the doctors suggested and he decided he would be in control of his own body with his own willpower alone. This seemed like it would be especially difficult during his high school years, as all the other kids were also struggling with their hormones and alpha and omega awakenings. However, Woohyun managed through it rather seamlessly, and his mother never forced him to take any medications.

Everything was going relatively fine for Woohyun up until a few months ago, just days after his thirtieth birthday. It happened one evening when he was walking home from the convenience store after the job he had then—a preschool teacher. He had bought items for dinner and strolled the empty dark street, grocery bag slung over on his shoulder, when he felt a presence behind him. There was definitely someone following him, he could hear footsteps, heavy breathing and something that sounded almost like snarling. He’d seen this happen in movies before, but it was usually a young woman being followed, and Woohyun had to wonder why _him_.

He had taken some self defense classes when he was in high school and figured he could handle himself, or at least try.

He counted to three in his head, stopped suddenly and turned.

Standing there was a huge man, who looked like he inhaled testosterone for breakfast. He was hunched over and donning a sleeveless top that emphasized his bulging biceps, drool dripping from his parted mouth. But the weird thing was his expression, vacant and empty like there was nothing in his head, more monster than man.

Woohyun hesitantly took a step backwards. “Um can I…can I help you?”

The looming giant made some grunting noises as he stomped towards Woohyun.

“Sorry,” Woohyun smiled nervously. “I didn’t quite catch that—.”

Suddenly the man beast started roaring and Woohyun never ran so fast in his life.

He ran home and locked the door to his apartment, wondering if what had happened was some sort of freaky nightmarish daydream. But the banging at his door proved that theory false in a hot second.

He glanced through the peephole just to make sure, and there he was—the scary creature, appearing even more animalistic than before. Woohyun swore his eyes were glowing a vibrant yellow.

“ _What the fuck!”_ Woohyun panicked and started pushing all his furniture against the door. “ _Is this really happening? What even is that? It’s not human…maybe this is just a dream, yeah a dream!”_

Woohyun did nothing to convince himself that it was a dream and instead stayed up all night, crouched on the cold floor next to most of his furniture that was stacked and piled against the front door.

Woohyun soon learned that during the daytime, he was usually safe, but once the sun went down _he_ would reappear to find Woohyun. Soon enough, _he_ turned into _they_ , herds of monster like people at night, chasing Woohyun down abandoned streets. Woohyun didn’t sleep for weeks and had to quit his job at the preschool because he could no longer be up both day and night.

Woohyun recently made an observation a few weeks ago after accidentally drinking too much and spending the night at Dongwoo’s house. They didn’t come for him at night if he was with another alpha. Unfortunately, this was sort of hard to accomplish because it wasn’t like he could sleepover at Dongwoo’s every night and he didn’t really know any other alphas that he was close enough with to rely on like that.

-

Woohyun arrived at the party Dongwoo had invited him to. It was at some rather huge club downtown that Dongwoo’s rich friend had rented out for the occasion. The walls were glowing neon purple and there was a funky upbeat banger booming through the speakers. Dongwoo found Woohyun, just as he sat down on a black velvet stool at the bar.

“You made it!” Dongwoo flung himself onto Woohyun. It was clear he had a little pre-party before he arrived, if the strong odor of alcohol wafting off him was anything to go by.

“Yeah,” Woohyun smiled at his friend. “I just figured—.”

“Hey, there’s a bunch of hot people here you should hook up w someone!” Dongwoo exclaimed rather loudly over the booming speakers.

Well, at least he said people and not girls, Woohyun thought as he watched Dongwoo hobble away, drink in one ring adorned hand, the other reaching for a nearby person who he seemed to be familiar with. Woohyun turned back to face the bar and stared down at the drink in front of him. He didn’t remember what he even ordered but it was blue. He stared at it suspiciously and poked it with his straw, when he felt someone’s eyes on him. He tried to ignore it and rubbed his forearm awkwardly. With so many bodies filling the club, the air was hot and smelled like perfume, sweat and alcohol.

But Woohyun didn’t mind any of it, because this was probably the safest place for him to be, with so many alphas around. It wasn’t long before some semi attractive guy came over to hit on him. Woohyun wasn’t really in the mood, but he was still grateful for the alpha presence—anything to have a night off from being chased by monsters.

He was trying to hear some story the guy was telling him over the loud music when he noticed someone approaching. It was his supposed assigned pairing partner, Kim Sunggyu.

“Ah, you…”

Sunggyu made a face the moment he met Woohyun’s eyes. “Oh, it’s you.”

Woohyun tried to smile and be cordial. “What kind of greeting is that?”

Sunggyu gave the guy sitting next to Woohyun a once over. “You know he’s also an alpha right?”

The man’s expression soured almost immediately and he got up a little too quickly. “Oh…well I, I guess I’ll see you around.”

It wasn’t uncommon for alpha men in their town to only go for omegas. It was an unspoken rule that Woohyun never really understood or cared to follow.

Woohyun sighed as he watched the man practically run away. “Why’d you have to tell him?”

Sunggyu shrugged as he sat down beside Woohyun and waited for the bartender to come around.

“Why hide it? You really want another alpha flirting with you?” He shook his head in disgust. “You alphas will fuck anything that moves, huh?”

Woohyun scratched his head, confused. “Wait…aren’t you also an alpha?”

Sunggyu cleared his throat. “And? I’m not like _you people_.”

A snort like sound immediately escaped Woohyun’s throat. “Are you for real right now?”

Sunggyu ignored him and ordered a beer. “Anyways, I called up the government office in charge of this partners thing and told them about what happened, and get this…they said it wasn’t a mistake?”

Woohyun turned to him. “They what?”

“Yeah,” Sunggyu took a sip from the brown glass bottle in his hand. “They were saying shit like every person gets paired up with the person they need to be paired up with. Basically saying it was intentional that we were matched…”

“How? Isn’t this whole thing supposed to be to mend relations with alphas and omegas? Not alphas and alphas…” Woohyun frowned. “And how come its different than what they said to me this afternoon?”

Sunggyu shook his head, eyes narrowed. “This whole thing is shady as fuck. Like the government forcing people to be friends? Sounds really weird if you ask me…”

Woohyun’s heart thumped in his chest. There was finally someone who was suspicious of how things were besides him. He figured if he could explain his situation to anyone, maybe it could be Sunggyu.

He looked both ways, cautiously for a moment before leaning closer to Sunggyu. “Can I tell you something?”

“If it’s that you’re gay and in love with me, I would not be surprised in the least.” Sunggyu deadpanned, staring into the distance.

“Hah.” Woohyun snorted. “No…ok so you probably noticed I don’t have a typical alpha scent?”

Sunggyu pursed his lips in thought. “Maybe…”

“Well, I’ve never taken alpha suppressants.” Woohyun admitted, causing Sunggyu to choke on a sip of beer.

“What?” Sunggyu turned to him in disbelief. “How can you…how does that even work? Are you sure you’re an alpha?”

“Yeah,” Woohyun nodded. “That’s the thing! I’ve never taken it, and coincidentally never experienced the usual things other alphas do.”

“So…what? You’re saying the suppressants are actually causing alpha behavior?”

“That’s not all…” Woohyun let out a deep sigh. “OK this might sound hard to believe but at night there’s these creatures that come out—.”

“And you lost me.” Sunggyu got up to leave.

“No!” Woohyun clutched onto his sweatshirt sleeve. “Please just listen, please.”

Sunggyu hesitated, looking into Woohyun’s round, earnest (adorable puppy) eyes and averted his gaze. “Fine…Five minutes.”

“Its been happening for a few months…they just started chasing me.” Woohyun explained, fiddling with his fingers in his lap, as Sunggyu listened. “Every night…at first, I didn’t know what they were, but I started to keep track of some things and I think they’re people? Like alpha people? Or at least they were at some point…”

“Ok, so now you’re saying the alpha suppressants are turning alphas into monsters?” Sunggyu raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know about that, but I mean...there’s definitely something going on here? And how come they only come after me?” Woohyun reasoned. “Oh! And they don’t come after me if there’s another alpha around me. That’s why I figured they might be alphas? You know with all that territorial shit.”

Sunggyu didn’t say anything for a minute and it made Woohyun anxious.

“Please say something…” Woohyun sighed. “You think I’m crazy right?”

Sunggyu put his bottle down and turned to Woohyun with a rather serious expression.

“Are you trying to get in my pants?”

“W-What?” Woohyun sputtered. “What would even make you think—?”

“Conveniently, no one chases you if you’re around another alpha, and OH look at that, I’m another alpha. And more conveniently, if you come over to my house to spend the night so the monsters don’t get to you, and OH if you’re staying over, I only have one bed so—.”

“OK, ok I get it…” Woohyun sighed. “Never mind sorry I bothered you…”

Sunggyu watched him get up and leave, head lowered, dreams crushed and something inside him felt twisted—guilty.

“ _Was I wrong…?"_ Sunggyu wondered.

But Woohyun was an alpha, and Sunggyu knew that alphas only ever wanted one thing.


	3. Three

It had been a week since Woohyun told Sunggyu about his theories at the party and they hadn’t contacted each other since. Sunggyu couldn’t help but go back and forth in his mind about whether to believe Woohyun or not. Sure, he made some good, interesting points, but Sunggyu’s distrust for alphas took up a large portion of his brain, and therefore made it hard for him to ignore.

It was almost midnight as Sunggyu walked out onto the balcony of his apartment—a luxurious penthouse affair of marble stone floors, chandeliers and crown molding. Sunggyu’s family was one of the richest alpha clans in town, so he basically lived a rather comfortable life with a cushy job in financing. He leaned against the iron railing, watching the cars drive by down below and thought about what Woohyun said about being chased every night.

“ _How is it even possible that something like that happens to him every night…obviously he must be lying.”_ Sunggyu thought, as he took another sip of the scotch in his glass.

He went back inside just in time to see a notification on his phone. Everyone was required to download an app that they could use to log the time they spend with their paired person. But because it had been over a week and Sunggyu and Woohyun hadn’t logged any time together, the app sent him several notifications that felt more like warnings. Sunggyu tried to log a made up time amount into the app but it wouldn’t accept it without getting a fingerprint confirmation from both him and Woohyun.

Sunggyu muttered a swear word under his breath and decided to text Woohyun to tell him that they needed to meet up to fake log some time in so the app would stop harassing him.

Five minutes later Woohyun simply replied: “You can come over now,” followed by his address.

Sunggyu was reluctant to go, but he knew the app was going to annoy him with threatening notifications the whole night so he figured it was best to get it over with. Plus, it was a Friday night so he could sleep in tomorrow. However, after twenty minutes of driving his GPS had led him to the outskirts of town in some sort of forest area.

“ _Damn it did that bastard trick me…?”_ Sunggyu wondered as he tried to see anything in the dark outside his window. He was too scared to get out of his car and start aimlessly wandering, so he phoned Woohyun.

Woohyun answered almost immediately. “Sunggyu-sshi—.”

“Listen you asshole, if this is some sort of prank—.”

“I’ll come to you.” Woohyun said, though he sounded shaky like he was out of breath. “I can’t see you though, can you get out of your car and just like, uh…stand next to it?”

Sunggyu looked both ways in disbelief. “What? Why?”

“Please Sunggyu-sshi!” Woohyun sounded panicked now, so Sunggyu gave in and nervously opened his car door and put one sneaker clad foot down onto the dusty road. He could hear some brush thrashing and leaves crunching and gulped nervously.

“W-What is this…?” Sunggyu looked at his phone and realized Woohyun had hung up. “That little—.”

Suddenly there was a monstrous growling roar, piercing the dark night. Sunggyu’s heart almost stopped, but before he could even make a move he saw Woohyun emerge from the foggy woods, running at a breakneck pace.

Sunggyu was about to start yelling at him when he noticed why Woohyun was running—a herd of creepy empty eyed, drooling, muscly, humanoid creatures chasing after him.

“What the fuck—!”

Woohyun ran straight towards him and practically threw himself into Sunggyu’s arms.

Sunggyu tried to push him off to get back into his car to escape the—well whatever the hell those creatures chasing Woohyun were. He didn’t care if Woohyun was right, he wanted no part of this.

However, Woohyun clung to him like his life depended on it. “Hold me.” He breathed on Sunggyu’s neck.

Sunggyu felt his ears go red hot. “W…What are you—”

“Please! Just do it!” Woohyun begged.

Sunggyu quickly wrapped his arms around Woohyun’s shoulders and Woohyun swiftly turned so his back was pressed against Sunggyu’s car and Sunggyu’s back was to the approaching monsters.

“What the hell, are you using me as a human shield—.”

“Just trust me.” Woohyun looked into his eyes earnestly. His cheeks were flushed from running with the cool night air, and the pale moon made his eyes sparkle in a surprisingly pure way. Sunggyu had never seen such an adorable alpha before.

“Ok, theyre gone.” Woohyun breathed a sigh of relief and leaned his forehead onto Sunggyu’s shoulder.

Sunggyu stood there, feeling a confusing combination of irritation, fear and warmth.

He quickly backed away and turned around, only to find that they were alone and the only sounds that could be heard besides their own breathing were the critters of the night; crickets chirping, and nocturnal birds cooing.

“What…” Sunggyu looked both ways, completely confused. “Where did those…those things go?”

“They left because of you.” Woohyun leaned back against Sunggyu’s car, folding his arms. “I told you, they leave me alone if I’m with someone who has the alpha scent.”

“They…” Sunggyu was breathless and in a dazed stupor at that point. “They’re real…?”

“So,” Woohyun couldn’t help an amused grin. “Looks like I wasn’t trying to get into your pants after all.”


	4. Four

Sunggyu was mortified at the fact that Woohyun lived in a shack. Woohyun insisted it was a log cabin, but to Sunggyu it was a shack in the middle of the woods. The inside was rather cozy except for the steel doors and the fact that the windows were nonexistent.

“Is this some sort of bunker or panic room…?” Sunggyu looked around in horrified distaste. There was one leather loveseat sofa across from a television with a small round coffee table in between. A few steps away there was a humble kitchen complete with all the appliances and a quaint little dinner table.

“Its my house.” Woohyun frowned as he plopped down at a chair by the kitchen counter. “I used to live in an apartment in town when I was a teacher, but I can’t really live there with…y’know, the creatures chasing me every night. It’d disturb the neighbors.”

“Disturb the neighbors…?” Sunggyu muttered under his breath as he observed a strange painting of a banana on the wall in the kitchen. “So, they’re just selling random shacks in the woods now?”

“No, I bought the land and had it built.” Woohyun explained, then got up to get something for them to drink.

Sunggyu followed him and leaned against a counter by the stove. “Yeah? And how’d you manage that if you quit your teaching job?”

Woohyun hesitated for a moment and coughed lightly. “What is this…an interrogation or something? He laughed awkwardly and pulled a bag of chips out from the cupboard.

“Why?” Sunggyu eyed him curiously. “Did you do something illegal?”

“No.” Woohyun poured the chips in a bowl. “Just…I make…videos sometimes.”

“Videos?” Sunggyu seemed more intrigued than judgmental. “What kind of videos?”

Woohyun’s ears were red at that point and he wasn’t making eye contact and Sunggyu just _knew_ it was something juicy. “Just…y’know…stuff. Anyways, who cares about that, don’t you want to know anything more about this whole alpha thing?”

Sunggyu snatched a chip from Woohyun’s bowl. “Yeah sure, but first…I’m curious what kind of videos are making you enough money to build an entire shack—.”

“Shut up about the videos!” Woohyun blurted out. “It’s not important ok?”

“If its not important, show me one.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Sunggyu shrugged. “If it’s not important.”

“It’s not important, so you don’t have to see it.” Woohyun huffed.

“But if it’s not important, why’re you acting like it’s a big secret?”

“Oh my god, can you just leave if you’re not gonna shut up about this?” Woohyun massaged his temples, tiredly.

Sunggyu tilted his head in curiosity. “Is it porn?”

Woohyun groaned and threw his hands up on the air. “Stop guessing!”

“Ok, so it _is_ porn.” Sunggyu nodded, like he had just cracked the case. He got up and started searching around like a dog looking for a bone. “But how did you manage that when you live here alone…? Did you just like bring some girls in or what?”

Woohyun blinked. “…What?”

“So, you just lured some poor girls to your dirty old shack and threatened to murder them if they didn’t let you film them doing dirty stuff? Wah….you really are scum.”

“Stop making up gross, horrible assumptions about me!” Woohyun sighed loudly. “Can we just log the time on the app so you can get the fuck out of my house…”

Sunggyu’s expression suddenly turned serious as he turned to Woohyun. “So…you really think the alpha suppressants are dangerous?”

Woohyun folded his arms and leaned against the kitchen counter. “I don’t know…have you ever gone without taking them?”

Sunggyu’s gaze fell to the ground. “I…can’t. I don’t want to lose control.”

“Have you ever lost control while on them? Or ever felt like you were going to?”

Sunggyu rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the plush blue rug laid down in the living room. “No…I don’t think so. I don’t know…” He bit his lower lip for a moment. “Maybe.”

Woohyun nodded. “I’m not going to tell you to stop taking them because I don’t know what’ll happen. Like I never took them so it’s probably different compared to someone who’s taken them their whole life suddenly stopping…” He moved to where Sunggyu was near the couch. “I do think those monsters were definitely alphas at some point. But yeah it doesn’t mean every alpha is necessarily gonna turn into a monster because if that were true there’d be way more monsters.”

“Do you know how many there are?”

“Of the creatures?” Woohyun blinked. “I don’t know…but I’m pretty sure it’s the same group every time.”

“Hmm…” Sunggyu nodded. “So, we can catch them then.”

“Catch them?” 

Sunggyu got his phone out of his pocket. “Yeah, let’s meet up tomorrow, I’ll have everything sorted by then. Well, not everything but…”

“Have what sorted?” Woohyun followed after Sunggyu, who was heading for the exit. “What’re you planning?”

“Ah,” Sunggyu stopped at the titanium steel door. “By the way uh…you don’t have any alpha friends you can stay with?”

“I do but…” Woohyun rubbed his forearm. “I don’t want to burden them with all this. It’s dangerous too…”

“But you didn’t mind burdening me with it.” Sunggyu replied, full of snark.

He expected a sass back, but instead Woohyun looked down, apologetically.

“Sorry about that…” He murmured. “I should just deal with it myself, since it’s my issue anyways…”

Sunggyu immediately felt his insides get uncomfy seeing Woohyun looking all mopey and sad and he didn’t like it. “I-I just meant…like,” Woohyun looked up at him with those adorable puppy eyes and Sunggyu suddenly felt his neck grow uncomfortably warm. “You know like…you could come to my place…some nights, if it gets too difficult or, I don’t know if the monsters break down the walls or something.”

Woohyun’s eyes lit up like a child receiving their favorite present on Christmas morning.

“Really?”

Sunggyu cleared his throat and looked in the other direction. “Sure, whatever.”

“But I thought you said you only have one bed in your house.” Woohyun smiled, amused.

“I have a couch!” Sunggyu hissed. “But for you, I’ll throw some newspaper on the floor, it’ll be _really_ comfy.”

Sunggyu was completely unnerved by how Woohyun was still smiling at him after he said such a mean thing.

“Thank you Sunggyu-sshi.” Woohyun held Sunggyu’s hand in his smaller ones and he was warm.

Sunggyu quickly retracted his hand because he definitely was not interested in feeling any more weird feelings that night. “Whatever, let’s go.”

“Hm?” Woohyun leaned closer to him as if he hadn’t heard him. “You mean like right now?”

“Well, yeah when I leave they’ll just come back right?” Sunggyu shoved his hands in the pockets of his joggers and looked out the door, though it was mostly just darkness. He turned back around but Woohyun wasn’t even there anymore.

“Hang on!” Woohyun popped his head back inside from the hallway. “I’m packing my stuff!”


	5. Five

Woohyun grew up in a mostly middle class setting so entering Sunggyu’s luxurious penthouse apartment was something of a culture shock.

He dropped his bags at the door staring up at the crystal chandelier hanging from the raised ceiling. “Nice place…” He murmured.

Sunggyu didn’t say anything, but made a mental note to keep track of where everything was in case Woohyun tried to steal something. He abandoned a starstruck Woohyun in the entranceway after tossing his shoes on the floor, and padded down the long hallway into another room.

Woohyun rubbed his forearm and looked around, not knowing if he should follow or not. Sunggyu wasn’t exactly the most gracious of hosts.

“Um…” He cleared his throat, but immediately felt like a fool since he was clearly standing there alone. He wandered down the hallway into a large living room with wall to wall windows, more high ceilings and a continuation of the marble flooring from the entrance way.

He spotted Sunggyu throwing a blanket onto a black leather sofa. “You sleep here.” He said to Woohyun.

“Thanks for this.” Woohyun approached him with a grateful smile. “Really.”

Sunggyu cleared his throat and awkwardly hobbled past Woohyun to leave. The way Woohyun was looking at him—all genuine and warm, made Sunggyu confused and that made him annoyed.

“I-I know where everything is!” He blurted out. “So…I’ll know if something is missing.”

Woohyun’s expression made it feel like he thought what Sunggyu had just said was a joke and that annoyed Sunggyu even more.

“Whatever, I’m going to bed. Don’t steal anything.” Sunggyu huffed.

Woohyun actually laughed at that. “Oh darn, and here I was planning the great oven heist of the decade!”

-

Sunggyu had something of an unconscious routine that involved waking up at 3am and going downstairs into the kitchen to drink a glass of water. After pouring himself a glass in the darkness he wandered over to the windowed walls, leading to the balcony. It was a clear night and the moon was like a shimmering pearl against the dark sky.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

Sunggyu almost had a heart attack and spilled his water from Woohyun’s sudden voice behind him.

“What the hell!” He hissed as Woohyun emerged from the darkness of the living room to stand next to him. “How long were you standing there you creep?”

Woohyun just shrugged, hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, with a simple smile, gazing up at the starry sky outside the window.

Sunggyu sighed helplessly. “Why are you up anyways? Go back to sleep.”

“Well actually…” Woohyun awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t really sleep at night? Y’know, because of the whole creepy monster creatures chasing me and stuff? So, I kind of adjusted my sleep schedule to be awake at night and asleep in the day.”

“Ah…” Sunggyu looked up at the sky as well. “That...makes sense.”

They stood in silence for a moment, though Sunggyu felt unnerved by how Woohyun kept glancing at him like he wanted to say something.

“I was wondering,” Woohyun finally spoke up. “If you hate alphas so much, why’re you letting me stay over?”

Sunggyu turned to him, frowning. “So, I’m supposed to leave you there alone to get attacked by those monsters then?”

Woohyun didn’t say anything but he was making mental notes. “ _So, his instinct to be protective is stronger than his hate for alphas…”_

Sunggyu turned around to go back to sleep when he heard the loudest tummy grumble in existence. He stared at Woohyun and Woohyun stared back.

It was 3:30 am.

“Don’t tell me this is your lunch time.”

-

Sunggyu yawned and leaned his elbows on the kitchen table, while Woohyun noisily slurped a pot full of ramen across the table from him.

“Well, you certainly eat like an alpha.” Sunggyu remarked in disdain.

Woohyun sighed and put down his chopsticks, tiredly. “Sunggyu-sshi, can you please stop with the alpha this, alpha that. Why’re you so obsessed with alpha stereotypes? It’s getting really boring…maybe start thinking of people as people first before shoving unnecessary labels on them.”

Sunggyu was speechless by Woohyun’s sharp words. “Yah, you…you know I can kick you out of my house right now and make you fend for yourself with those monsters!”

Woohyun chuckled, with absolutely no sense of fear. “You wouldn’t.”

“Why the hell not!”

“Because you wouldn’t.” Woohyun shrugged and took a sip of water. “You’re protective, you wouldn’t kick me out, knowing I’d be in danger when you can prevent it.”

Sunggyu was once again, speechless. “Why do you know that...? What the fuck are you? So, you just go around analyzing everyone for your own personal gain you manipulative little—.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Woohyun frowned. He held out his hands in a begging gesture. “Please believe me hyung-nim.”

Sunggyu made a face, but somehow couldn’t find it in him to chastise Woohyun further. There was something about the way he was, his eyes, his general demeanor. It was weird, Sunggyu thought.

“You’re weird,” He huffed and got up. “I’m going to bed.”

“Okay, sleep well hyung-nim!” Woohyun called after him.

-

Sunggyu woke up the next morning and hurried downstairs to grab his coffee. He only had about fifteen minutes to get to work and he fully blamed Woohyun for keeping him up last night.

Sunggyu’s cleaning lady, Soonja, a gentle woman in her late forties, had already arrived and was in the kitchen. Sunggyu greeted her sleepily and trudged over to the coffee maker.

“Sunggyu-yah, who’s the handsome, young man sleeping on your couch?” Soonja asked with a curious smile as she cleaned some dishes.

Sunggyu made a face after taking a sip of coffee. For the briefest second he wanted to pretend Woohyun wasn’t still in his home.

He left Soonja in the kitchen to wake Woohyun up to tell him to get the hell out of his house.

But then he saw Woohyun on the couch, lying on his side, hugging a decorative pillow. He looked so peaceful, and almost…pure in a way.

“ _He only seems cute because his mouth is shut.”_ Sunggyu told himself and went back into the kitchen.

“Ahjumma,” Soonja turned from the dishes. “When the guy on the sofa wakes up, can you make sure he leaves? I have to get to work.” 


	6. Six

It was lunchtime and Sunggyu just finished his last meeting. He closed his laptop, sighed and leaned back in his chair. He had just picked up his phone to check his messages when the door to his office opened and in came Lee Sungyeol. Sungyeol worked in real estate finance and had been Sunggyu’s friend since they both got jobs at the company around the same time.

Sungyeol had his tablet in one hand and a takeout bag with their lunch in it in his other.

“Ok, so I emailed you all the documents about purchasing that abandoned factory space at the edge of town.” Sunggyu pulled a chair for Sungyeol to sit next to him.

“Thanks for that.” Sunggyu nodded appreciatively.

“Why do you want to buy that place anyways?” Sungyeol frowned.

“Uh…” Sunggyu scrunched his eyebrows to think of some sort of lie. “I’m starting a garage band.”

Sungyeol snorted loudly and clicked open a can of soda. “Whatever, man.”

“Sungyeol,” Sunggyu paused to take a bite of his sandwich. “Have you ever stopped taking your alpha suppressants?”

“What?” Sungyeol leaned back in his chair and put his legs up on the desk. “No way, I don’t want to go crazy and attack an omega or something. I legit have no self control without them.”

Sunggyu nodded in thought. “How do you know, though?”

“What?”

“That you’ll have no control? Like…if you’ve never not taken them?”

Sungyeol furrowed his brows. “Huh?”

“Never mind.” Sunggyu shrugged it off. However, a thought hit him—how did he really know for sure that Woohyun was being truthful about never having taken alpha suppressants. “ _I need to test him.”_ Sunggyu decided.

-

When Sunggyu got home at around five that afternoon, his apartment was quiet. He sighed to himself, somehow forgetting that unlike last night with Woohyun annoying him, this was how it usually was. He threw his things next to his shoes at the entrance way and made his way upstairs to his bedroom.

Woohyun was in his bedroom—no Woohyun was in his _bed._ Sunggyu was kind of stunned for a moment, but that quickly went away as he stormed over to his bed.

“Yah!” He yanked at the covers, waking up the other alpha in a rather aggressive manner.

Woohyun made a whimpery sound and squinted up at Sunggyu. “Sun…ggyu-sshi?”

“Why the hell are you in my room? How’d you even get in?”

“Ah…” Woohyun sat up sleepily and rubbed his eyes. His hair was messy and kind of fluffy and if Sunggyu wasn’t mad at that moment, and didn’t hate alphas so much, he might’ve thought it was cute. “The nice cleaning lady ahjumma said I could sleep here while she vacuumed so…”

Sunggyu groaned and massaged his temples. Soonja always had a soft spot for handsome men.

“Well, since you’re here anyways…” Sunggyu sat down at the edge of the bed. “Remember how I said we can capture the monsters?” Woohyun nodded sleepily. “So, y’know those old, abandoned factory buildings on the outskirts of town? I figured that’d be the best place to catch them and keep them. But, it might take a while for the purchasing paperwork and everything to go through—.”

“Wait, hold up…” Woohyun ran a hand through his dark hair. “You’re saying, you bought an entire building just to catch the monsters that’re chasing me?”

Sunggyu blinked. He wouldn’t have put it that way, because Woohyun was making it sound like it was something Sunggyu did for him. It wasn’t. It definitely wasn’t.

“That…it’s not like I did it for you.” Sunggyu argued. “It’s just a concerning thing to have monsters running lose in town and I had some extra money lying around.”

“ _Ah…he’s so cool.”_ Woohyun thought, in a daze, seeing Sunggyu sitting there in his expensive looking dark grey suit. There was one thing that Woohyun was almost always weak for, and that was a rich man in a fancy suit. “ _I really need to get laid…”_ He thought with a deep internal sigh.

Meanwhile, Sunggyu was completely unnerved by Woohyun’s weird stares and strange silence.

“So anyways,” He cleared his throat. “I figured we can set up some sort of plan? Like how we’re going to catch the monsters and stuff?”

“Ah, right!” Woohyun nodded. “I guess I would have to lure them there…”

Sunggyu suddenly got a text and was silent for a good minute, which started to concern Woohyun.

“Sunggyu-sshi? IS everything ok—?”

Sunggyu suddenly stood up. “We can discuss the plan later.”

Woohyun looked up at him, more than little perplexed by Sunggyu’s sudden determination. “Okay…?”

“For now,” Sunggyu turned to him. “Get ready, we’re going out.”

-

Woohyun kind of figured Sunggyu didn’t want to spend any time with him outside of the monster situation, so he was surprised when Sunggyu drove them to what looked like some sort of fancy club.

“Where are we?” Woohyun peered out the car window. He found he recognized the general area because it was close by to the club where Dongwoo’s friend’s party was. He turned to Sunggyu, just as the older man parallel parked the car. “Are you taking me to a club, hyung?”

Sunggyu looked at him strangely for being addressed so casually. He never said Woohyun could call him hyung. “Why? You want to go to a club?”

Woohyun snorted at that. “I mean not really,” He paused for a moment. “It’s not like we can really hang out together there…”

Sunggyu was more than a little confused. Why the fuck would Woohyun want to hang out with him? He hadn’t exactly been nice or warm to Woohyun at all since they’d met, and he hated all alphas and made that very clear to Woohyun.

“I don’t get you…” Sunggyu sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“We could just go back to your place and eat ramen at 3am again.” Woohyun chuckled, though his expression looked nervous, unsure, like he wanted Sunggyu to say yes, but didn’t think he would.

Sunggyu didn’t like it. Woohyun was weird and it made him uncomfortable. _Woohyun_ made him uncomfortable.

“Let’s go.” He finally said and got out of the car.

-

The inside of the club was bathed in deep hues of purple and blue lighting and sparkling chandeliers dripped from the ceiling. It was one of those luxury night clubs that Woohyun would never be able to afford. He followed Sunggyu past throngs of people on the dancefloor up the stairs to what seemed like a VIP section. The lighting was more sultry and there were pearl white sofas and candles.

Woohyung awkwardly followed Sunggyu and sat down right next to him on a sofa. Sunggyu turned to him with an annoyed look, but didn’t say anything. A 20-something man that appeared to be a waiter, donned in a black button up shirt and black trousers, approached them with a polite smile.

“Welcome back Mr. Kim.” He greeted Sunggyu graciously. “Would you like to see the VIP menu for tonight?”

Woohyun looked from the man to Sunggyu, who just smiled at the man. “No thanks, I’ll have the usual and can we take a look at the special menu too? Thanks.”

After the man bowed and left, Woohyun turned to Sunggyu.

“He seemed to know you.” Sunggyu leaned closer to hear Woohyun over the music.

“Oh, yeah…it comes with the family territory. We kind of own this place…?”

Woohyun snorted, remembering about Sunggyu’s privileged upbringing. “Right…so what’s on the special menu? Some more overpriced drinks?”

He accidentally met Sunggyu’s eyes, and neither of them said anything for a moment.

“Omegas.”

Woohyun blinked. “…What?”

Sunggyu, believing Woohyun couldn’t hear him, leaned closer so his mouth was practically on Woohyun’s ear. “The special menu is your choice of any female omega you’d like to fuck.”

Woohyun turned to look at Sunggyu’s expression and Sunggyu looked back, unsure of what Woohyun’s reaction would be. If he was an alpha who hadn’t taken suppressants, he would most definitely agree, Sunggyu figured. Sunggyu didn’t know an alpha alive who would refuse the invitation to fuck an omega.

Woohyun simply sighed and got up, hands in the pockets of his dark slim fit trousers. “I’m going to get a drink.” He said and then abandoned Sunggyu in the VIP section and went downstairs to where the supposed regular people were.

-

Woohyun slumped onto one of the few empty stools at a marble countered bar on the first floor of the club, which was fairly crowded and bustling with activity.

He ordered the cheapest drink on the menu and watched the crowd with an empty feeling.

Sunggyu didn’t believe him. Sunggyu brought him to this place because he still didn’t believe him.

“ _I guess it makes sense…we barely know each other after all…”_ Woohyun thought to himself.

“Say, don’t I know you from somewhere?” Some beefy guy in a designer brand tank top stole the stool next to Woohyun.

“Me?” Woohyun blinked. “Sorry, I don’t think—.”

“Yeah! You’re…” The man looked around hesitantly for a moment before lowering his voice. “…Hyoni, aren’t you?”

“Oh shit…” Woohyun murmured under his breath and quickly looked around in case Sunggyu had followed after him. “Uh, that’s—.”

“Oh my god, you’re so…!” The man looked at a loss for words, his eyes sparkling like he’d just seen Beyoncé in person. “C-Can I have your autograph?” He sputtered and pulled the baseball cap he was wearing backwards off his shaven head.

“Uh…Sure.” Woohyun gave in and accepted the cap and a pen the bartender helpfully supplied. He awkwardly signed the cap and handed it back to the large man with a small smile.

“Thank you so much, you’re even more beautiful in person oh my god—.” The man paused for a moment, and smiled nervously at Woohyun. “Would it…I mean is it too much to ask for a selfie—?”

Woohyun figured why the hell not, the man seemed nice enough and he didn’t really have anything better to do.

But Sunggyu had other ideas.

He had come downstairs to find Woohyun only to see some buff dude leering a little too close to him. Sunggyu didn’t know much about the alpha monsters, but this guy sure resembled one of them in the dark violet lighting from across the room.

He rushed over, weaving frantically through the crowd and grabbing onto Woohyun’s elbow.

“Are you ok?” Sunggyu gave him a once over to see if he was hurt anywhere.

But Woohyun gave him a weird look. “I’m fine…? What’s wrong?”

“That…” Sunggyu turned to the “monster,” who in actuality, was just a normal man who probably regularly frequented the gym. “Oh…”


	7. Seven

Sunggyu was beyond embarrassed and refused to speak the entire car ride home.

“It was an honest mistake.” Woohyun said, after they got back to Sunggyu’s apartment.

“Shut up.” Sunggyu hissed and poured himself a glass of water from the fridge.

But Woohyun just smiled at him from across the kitchen counter. “Thanks for worrying about me.”

Sunggyu hated it.

He took Woohyun to that club to prove that Woohyun was some sort of big fat liar. And Woohyun was _thanking_ him. This wasn’t right. None of it was right.

“Why aren’t you mad?” He blurted out. “You know why I took you to that club!”

Woohyun stared at the glass on the counter with a soft gaze. “So, do you trust me now?” Sunggyu didn’t say anything for a moment and picked up his water.

“Why was that huge ass guy bothering you anyways?”

Woohyun rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh…no reason. He just thought we met before, but he was wrong.”

Sunggyu nodded casually and took another sip of water. “So, like…you really have no interest in omegas?”

"What about you?" Woohyun hesitantly met Sunggyu’s gaze. “Since you seemed very comfy at that bar when you asked for that “special” menu.”

Sunggyu frowned. “This isn’t about me…and for your information, my cousin is the manager so I get free drinks there.”

“Okay, but it’s your family’s business so isn’t it essentially their whole idea and concept—.”

“My family,” Sunggyu interrupted, slamming his glass on the counter a little too hard that it almost cracked. “I’m not my family.”

Woohyun watched him for a moment with a somewhat sad gaze. “I’m sorry, I…I didn’t mean to assume anything.”

To his surprise, Sunggyu sighed softly, and when he looked up at Woohyun, he didn’t look scary or mad. Instead, he looked somewhat…vulnerable.

“I…” Sunggyu rubbed the back of his neck, sheepishly. “No…I shouldn’t have snapped like that…of course you don’t know anything about my family, it’s not like we know that much about each other anyways…”

Woohyun moved around the counter to stand beside Sunggyu. “Isn’t that the point of this partner project thing? Let’s learn.”

Sunggyu snorted, though he couldn’t fight his lips from forming a small smile. “That’s supposed to be for alphas and omegas.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be.” Woohyun frowned, folding his arms. “Just because we’re both alphas, doesn’t mean we’re the same person. There’s a lot of things that make us different and—.”

“Yes, yes Mister Revolutionary Anarchist man who wants to overthrow the government and modern society.” Sunggyu laughed, actually _laughed._ Woohyun was kind of stunned at how beautiful Sunggyu’s laugh and smile were.

No, he told himself, you can’t.

Woohyun had made a promise to himself to never fall for a straight man again because it had happened one too many times, and it never went well for him for obvious reasons.

“Uh, I should go.” Woohyun hastily turned to leave.

“Go where? It’s already dark outside.” Sunggyu called after him.

“I meant…uh…to the bathroom.” Woohyun muttered and scampered off.

-

Sunggyu entered his bedroom and the first thing he realized was that he needed to change his bed sheets because Woohyun had slept on them during the day. But then a thought hit him—sure Woohyun was peculiar for an alpha, but maybe it was because he wasn’t even an alpha at all. He could be an omega who was good at hiding his scent somehow. But no matter how good he was, there was no omega that could completely conceal their scent from rubbing off onto bed linens.

Sunggyu rushed towards his bed and began to sniff every part of his bed like a deranged dog on a mission. However, there was nothing, no trace of any omega scent anywhere. He signed and leaned back against the cushioned head rest. “ _So, I guess he really is an alpha…”_

-

Sunggyu couldn’t help but wonder why Woohyun insisted on staying up to eat breakfast with him the next morning, despite looking like he was going to fall asleep into a plate of eggs at any given moment.

“Why don’t you just go to sleep?” Sunggyu remarked, cup of coffee in hand as he watched Woohyun’s head bob sleepily.

Woohyun picked up his own mug and began stirring the contents inside. “Is the nice cleaning ahjumma coming today?”

“No, she doesn’t work on weekends.” Sunggyu eyed Woohyun’s cup. “What’re you drinking?”

“It’s chocolate soymilk.” Woohyun remarked with a sleepy smile.

“What…” Sunggyu made a face. “Why?”

“Because, if I drink dairy milk,” Woohyun made a cute gesture of rubbing his belly with his eyes squinting shut. “My tummy hurts.”

Sunggyu sighed in an attempt to ignore how he _may_ have thought that Woohyun was being adorable. “Not that, I mean why chocolate milk and not like coffee or…?”

“I can’t drink coffee because I’m going to sleep after this.” Woohyun explained in a matter of fact tone and picked up his chopsticks to eat.

Sunggyu watched Woohyun serve himself and then proceed to doze off again. At one point it looked like Woohyun really was going to face plant into a bowl of stew so Sunggyu instinctively reached across the small rectangular table. Woohyun almost immediately leaned his cheek into Sunggyu’s palm and against his better judgement, Sunggyu felt his insides turn to mush.

 _“Ah…he’s like a puppy_.” Sunggyu watched Woohyun leaning into his hand, dozing, his cheek as soft as could be. Sunggyu almost felt the urge to pinch him.

But then he accidentally bumped the table leg and the noise ended up rousing Woohyun awake.

Sunggyu retracted his hand so fast, he could’ve been a ninja or something.

“Shit, sorry…” Woohyun rubbed the back of his head in a drowsy manner. “I fell asleep again…”

Sunggyu cleared his throat a little too loudly before taking a sip of his coffee. “I hadn’t noticed.”

-

After Woohyun took a short nap, Sunggyu dropped him off back at his shack in the middle of the woods while it was still light outside. Woohyun hesitated with his hand on the car door handle, even after Sunggyu turned the engine off.

“So um…” He turned to Sunggyu with an almost gloomy expression.

“Okay, see you in a few days.” Sunggyu quickly said because he couldn’t take another moment of Woohyun’s sad puppy dog eyes.

“Wait, what?” Woohyun’s eyes widened. “Why?”

“What do you mean why? We need to log our hours together into that stupid app, or they’ll think we’re not spending any time together.”

“Right…” Woohyun smiled. “Ah, also we still need to come up with a plan on how to catch the monsters. I guess I’ll have to lead them to the abandoned warehouse…”

Sunggyu nodded. “Yeah, you better get yourself into shape because that’ll be a lot of running.”

Woohyun laughed at that. “Hyung please, I’ve been running away from them for a few months now, I think I’ve prepared enough.”

Sunggyu suddenly felt guilt in the pit of his stomach. Guilt that Woohyun had to put up with this on his own for so long. He couldn’t help but imagine Woohyun alone in that shack in the middle of the woods, while the monsters lurked outside ready to attack. Woohyun running for his life down dark streets, alone, with no one to even call out to for help.

“Okay, well see you in a few days then—.” Woohyun opened the car door to leave, when Sunggyu absently touched his hand to stop him.

“Uh…y'know,” Sunggyu held Woohyun’s gaze for a moment, there was something like pity—no, worry in his eyes. “If you’re in danger or something…call me okay?”

Woohyun was someone who was touched very easily, so naturally he felt a warmth overtake his chest at Sunggyu’s words. “Thanks, I will.” He looked down for a moment, before earnestly meeting Sunggyu’s eyes again. “I…I don’t know that much about you yet, but I think…I think you’re kinder than you think you are.” He flashed Sunggyu what was probably the most dazzling eye smile Sunggyu had ever seen, complete with dimples and slightly pink cheeks.

Sunggyu watched Woohyun get out of the car and go back into his shack before restarting the engine. He hastily rolled down the window.

“ _What the fuck was that...?"_ His face was hot all the way to his ears and he wanted to pretend it was because it was just stuffy inside the car. “ _He’s an alpha…he’s a fucking alpha…it doesn’t matter if he’s maybe sort of kind of cute and really nice...HE’S AN ALPHA.”_ Sunggyu buried his reddened face into his hands in despair. _“What the hell is wrong with me…?”_


	8. Eight

Sunggyu was the youngest person in his family that consisted of his mother, father and older sister. Because of this, and the fact that he was a boy, he was pampered a lot, maybe even coddled. That was what made him even more hurt and shocked when he discovered the ugly truth behind the alpha and omega system and how his own father was complicit in it.

Sunggyu did everything he could to avoid having to see his father. Whenever he went home to see his omega mother, he always made sure it was at times, when his father wasn’t going to be there. Because to Sunggyu, having to look at his father, made him feel like he was looking into a mirror. Having to look at alphas in general made him feel like he was looking into a mirror. Sunggyu liked to pretend and convince himself that he wasn’t like other alphas, that he was different somehow. But deep inside, he still feared that every other alpha’s bad behavior was merely a reflection of his own horrible potential.

Then there was Woohyun.

For the short time that Sunggyu had known Woohyun, he realized that Woohyun never made him feel like he was looking into some mirror of his worst fears. At first, naturally Sunggyu was repulsed by him, purely off the basis that he was an alpha. But it was almost startling to him how Woohyun rather quickly changed his mind.

Woohyun didn’t have that vibe that he was in some competition of how macho he can be with every man he saw. Though Sunggyu didn’t know any male omegas personally, he didn’t feel like Woohyun had the vibe of an omega either. He was just strange—an enigma—some sort of mystery Sunggyu couldn’t grasp.

It had been a few days and Sunggyu was parked outside Woohyun’s shack, waiting to pick him up. He felt this uncomfortable nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach and he had no idea why.

_“He’s an alpha!”_ He told himself in preparation, for whatever cute thing Woohyun would inevitably do or say. To Sunggyu, alphas could never be cute under any circumstance. Sure, growing up his mother often referred to him as such on a daily basis. But that was different. Grown adult alpha males were not and could never be considered cute in Sunggyu’s mind.

Woohyun opened the car door suddenly, and popped inside after tossing his duffel bag in the back seat.

“Thanks for waiting hyung.” He gave Sunggyu an appreciative smile. He looked rather bright and cheerful, with his dark brown fluffy bangs and denim jacket that made him look half his age.

“ _Fuck stop being cute you monster!”_ Sunggyu mentally cursed and cleared his throat. He was convinced it was some sort of scheme. Alphas were known to be manipulative in Sunggyu’s mind, so it would make sense if that was Woohyun’s intention.

“So, how are things…?” Woohyun asked in an attempt to fill the awkward silence. “Ah y’know I miss you at nights hyung…”

Sunggyu’s face immediately reddened. “What?”

Woohyun’s eyes widened, upon realizing the implications of his statement. “Wait, no! I mean…I meant the 3am ramen…? Y-You know like…when you’d come into the kitchen to drink your glass of water and I…would eat lunch…” He stared into his lap, an embarrassed mess. “I’ll just shut up forever now…”

Woohyun looked all flustered and Sunggyu instantly felt weak.

“ _Cute…”_ Sunggyu thought in a daze. He almost wanted to reach out and pat Woohyun’s head, but he repeated in his head over and over that Woohyun was an alpha and that helped him fight any head patting urges. 

-

Sunggyu drove over to the abandoned warehouse that they were going to use to catch the monsters in. It was a dark windowless space with dirty concrete flooring and a ceiling featuring exposed beams and cobwebs. The place was empty aside from a single battered up cardboard box somewhere to the side.

“What’s in there?” Woohyun asked, filled to the brim with childlike curiosity and mischief.

“Don’t do it.” Sunggyu warned.

“Oh, come on, it’s not like monsters are gonna pop out from it.” Woohyun chuckled and approached the mysterious box. He cautiously kicked it with the tip of his shoe and a big scraggly rat emerged and zipped past them to freedom.

Woohyun, in a panicked state ran back to Sunggyu and clung to him, while Sunggyu had a hand to his chest to deal with the shock of the surprise rat appearance.

“Hyung…” Woohyun looked around the room cautiously, still gripping onto Sunggyu’s arm. “I don’t like it here…”

“Yeah…” Sunggyu sighed in agreement. “Let’s go get some dinner…”

-

They settled on some lowkey family diner and sat at a booth table. After sitting down, Woohyun proceeded to look through the menu, but Sunggyu was too busy rifling around in the expensive brand name leather tote bag he had brought with him. He finally fished out a paper map and spread it across the table.

“Ok, so—.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Woohyun put his hands up. “How old _are_ you?”

“Shut up.” Sunggyu hissed. “This is easier to use to track a clear path from your shack to the warehouse that doesn’t go through any majorly populated areas.”

“Mm…pretty sure there’s an app for that…” Woohyun got out his phone, much to Sunggyu’s chagrin. Low and behold, Woohyun was right, and an app for what Sunggyu wanted to do did exist.

Sunggyu reluctantly shoved his map back into his bag, and Woohyun couldn’t help but chuckle at how he seemed disappointed that he didn’t get to use his paper map.

“Y’know…it’s not like you’re that much younger than me anyways…” Sunggyu mumbled.

“Two years is like nothing.” Woohyun agreed, with an amused smile and it annoyed Sunggyu that he couldn’t even properly be annoyed.

After getting their food, Woohyun dug into his meal like it was the first one of the day, which for him, it was. It was evening, so Woohyun had essentially just gotten up when Sunggyu picked him up, and therefore hadn’t eaten yet.

“Ah, by the way…” Woohyun piped up with a mouthful of food. Sunggyu waited for him to chew and swallow before continuing. “So, my friend Dongwoo is hosting this sort of get together? For a few of our friends with whoever they got paired with for this project thing…” Sunggyu didn’t say anything for a grand total of two seconds, so naturally Woohyun started to get nervous. “I mean you’re probably really busy and stuff so…”

“I know a Dongwoo…” Sunggyu said with a thoughtful look. “Jang Dongwoo?”

“Wait,” Woohyun blinked. “You’re friends with an alpha?”

“I didn’t say we were friends.” Sunggyu shrugged. “But I know him, why do you think I was at that party in that club that time?”

“Ah…” Woohyun nodded. “Dongwoo basically knows everyone so I guess it makes sense…but yeah you can bring any friends if you want, I mean you don’t even have to come in the first place but—.”

Sunggyu tuned out Woohyun because he realized he didn’t really have “friends” he could bring. There was Sungyeol, but he’d never really hung out with him much outside of work before. But he didn’t want Woohyun to think he had no friends. Of course, it wasn’t like he cared what Woohyun thought of him, or at least that’s what he told himself.

“Yeah, sure I’ll be there. When is it?” Sunggyu suddenly said. His somewhat determined tone surprised Woohyun.

“Really?” Woohyun blinked.

“Why? Sunggyu frowned. “You don’t want me to come?”

“No! I do!” Woohyun leaned forward, a little too excitedly, like a puppy expecting a treat.

Sunggyu temporarily forgot that he was supposed to be acting like he didn’t like Woohyun or something like that because it didn’t really make any sense anymore. Nothing about Woohyun made any sense to Sunggyu, and he was quickly realizing he should just learn to accept that and let it be.


	9. Nine

After dinner, they split the check, then headed out. Sunggyu couldn’t help but notice the way Woohyun kept glancing down the street somewhere on their way to the car.

“Hey,” He nudged Woohyun gently. “Is it a monster?”

Woohyun turned to him with a somewhat dazed look, but quickly turned it to a relaxed smile, or at least an attempt at one.

“Ah…its not, don’t worry.” He assured Sunggyu. They both stood on the sidewalk for a moment, watching cars pass them by. The street was pretty empty and they were basically the only ones around.

Sunggyu waited for Woohyun to say something, anything, but he was strangely quiet. Woohyun was a tough nut to crack, and Sunggyu didn’t get it at all. Sometimes he seemed like such an open book, while other times he seemed completely closed off.

Sunggyu rubbed the back of his neck. “Y’know,” He figured if he initiated a conversation, Woohyun would be more likely to talk. “I realized I haven’t been out much…I mean like for dinner with someone…it’s been a while.”

Sunggyu immediately regretted his words. It was like he was essentially taping an “I’m lonely and single” sticker to his forehead. Well, technically he was single….and lonely. But Woohyun most certainly did not need to know that.

“I wondered about that to be honest,” Woohyun looked amused suddenly, like Sunggyu’s social life was some kind of hilarious joke.

_Well, fuck you_ , Sunggyu thought.

“I mean, apparently you don’t like alphas…and you don’t seem interested in omegas, so—.”

“Wait, wait.” Sunggyu stopped Woohyun. “Why don’t I seem interested in omegas? I never said I wasn’t? Why would you think I wasn’t?”

Woohyun was still smiling and it was frustrating. Why was he smiling, Sunggyu didn’t understand it at all.

“Am I a joke to you?” He blurted out. “Well sorry not all of us are super hot with great personalities!”

Woohyun wasn’t smiling anymore, and instead looked rather confused. “…You think I’m—?”

“No!” Sunggyu immediately interrupted. “I was talking about myself!”

“That…” Woohyun tilted his head. “That doesn’t even make any sense—.”

“Yes, it does. Shut up.”

They had what appeared to be an unplanned intense staring contest for a grand total of five seconds, before Woohyun cracked a smile and Sunggyu snorted loudly and soon they were both laughing like a couple of idiots.

“Okay, okay…” Woohyun admitted through chuckles. “I was kind of…” He looked down somewhat shyly and rubbed the back of his neck. “I was thinking about the park.”

Sunggyu had no idea what the park had to do with anything, but he was just relieved that it seemed Woohyun finally wanted to say something.

“Um…” Woohyun realized Sunggyu was waiting for him to continue. “I want to go…to the park.”

“What?” Sunggyu blinked. “Now?”

“I mean I was just thinking about it.” Woohyun suddenly became flustered as if expressing his desires was unfamiliar territory to him. “Just…because I haven’t been to a park in months and I guess I never appreciated it when I had the chance, because now I never really get the chance because I’m sleeping in the day time and I...can’t exactly go at night and—.”

“Okay, I get it!” Sunggyu interrupted, but he was smiling. He was smiling and didn’t seem annoyed at all, which relieved Woohyun, just a little. “So, let’s go.” Sunggyu suddenly said and began walking in the direction of the park.

“Wait, what?” Woohyun gasped, hurriedly following after him. “Really?”

Sunggyu could practically see Woohyun’s metaphorical tail wagging and his eyes bright and it really wasn’t fair at all. Sunggyu didn’t even like dogs so he didn’t understand why Woohyun’s puppy like behavior made him feel so weak, yet weirdly warm at the same time.

-

The park was empty of people, and it was mostly dark except for the stray streetlight and the bright moonlight. But none of that seemed to bother Woohyun who simply plopped down on the grass and breathed a sigh of relief. He sat cross legged and looked out at the river and the way the ripples in the water were illuminated by the moon’s glow.

Sunggyu looked up at the star filled sky for a moment, before joining Woohyun by sitting down beside him.

“So, you really like it here, huh?”

Woohyun nodded with an almost peaceful, content smile. “I really like to be around trees and flowers sometimes…ah I have this book all about types of flowers you can eat!”

“What?” Sunggyu snorted. “You’re so weird.”

Woohyun laughed along with him. “Thanks for this, hyung.”

Sunggyu felt weird. Woohyun always thanking him and being all grateful made him feel weird—like there was this guilt in the pit of his stomach. “Stop thanking me…” He tugged at some blades of grass and looked at the ground. “I didn’t even do anything…”

“Mm…” Woohyun pursed his lips, feeling a bit flustered by Sunggyu’s statement. “What should I do then…? I mean should I pay you back with money.” He joked, but then looked down at the grass as well. “I just…I feel like I should do something for you in return…”

“Ah!” A thought came to Sunggyu almost immediately. “There is something you can do in return.”

“Really?” Woohyun asked. “What? I’ll do anything—.”

“Show me the videos you make—.”

Woohyun immediately got up with slight annoyance. “Okay, time to go.”

His reaction made Sunggyu laugh despite himself. But it only made him more curious as to why Woohyun was so adamant about keeping his job so secretive. It wasn’t like porn was something to be ashamed of, as far as Sunggyu was concerned. That is, unless he was treating the porn actresses badly, then that would be a major problem. Though to Sunggyu, Woohyun really didn’t seem like the type to, so he didn’t see what the issue was.

“Wait, don’t tell me…” Sunggyu got up as well and dusted the grass off his pants. “Don’t tell me you’re _in_ the porn?!”

Woohyun flushed bright red at how loud Sunggyu was being, even though there wasn’t even anyone around. “Shut up!” He hissed. “I told you I don’t do that!”

“So its true!” Sunggyu gasped, with a little too much glee and followed after a flustered Woohyun excitably. “So that’s why you don’t want me to see the videos! Because its you fucking some girl—.”

Woohyun immediately stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Sunggyu with a threatening glare. Well, he thought it was a threatening glare, but he just looked like an angry, somewhat sulky chihuahua to Sunggyu.

“I told you I don’t do that.” Woohyun gritted his teeth, though his eyes were watery like he was gonna tear up from frustration.

Sunggyu suddenly felt a bit bad at how upset Woohyun seemed to be, but it was way too amusing and perhaps way too adorable as well. He patted Woohyun’s head to subdue him somewhat.

“Okay, okay.” He ruffled Woohyun’s soft locks with a grin. “You don’t do that, yes sure.”

Subduing could’ve been an understatement, because it had an unintended effect of turning Woohyun’s cheeks pink and flushed and his eyes suddenly started to sparkle in a dazed way.

“ _Wait…”_ Sunggyu noted Woohyun’s sudden mood change. “ _Does he like it that much…?”_

He quickly removed his hand and Woohyun didn’t seem to completely snap out of whatever was going on with him and he looked at Sunggyu with this almost needy look, like he didn’t want Sunggyu to stop.

A strange jolt of heat reached Sunggyu’s neck up to his ears at the sight. “Um…”

Woohyun’s eyes suddenly widened and he looked away ashamed as realization suddenly dawned on him. “Should…should we go?” He cleared his throat and avoided Sunggyu’s eyes like they were dangerous to even think about.

“Uh…yeah.” Sunggyu’s voice got stuck in his throat for a moment, his mind racing.

_“What the fuck was that?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi ;u; this was basically just a short chapter to set up for the longer than usual party chapter coming up next lol


	10. Ten

It was the evening of Dongwoo’s party and Sunggyu and Woohyun decided to meet at the party. Mainly because Sunggyu was going to go straight from work and Woohyun was going to Dongwoo’s house early to help him set up. They were still somewhat awkward from the events at the park the previous day and mostly avoided each other in Sunggyu’s apartment aside from light, polite conversation and minimal eye contact.

Sungyeol agreed to come with Sunggyu because he had nothing else going on, but the omega he was paired with couldn’t make it.

Sunggyu parallel parked his car on the street corner of the upper class suburban neighborhood the GPS led them to.

“Never been to this neighborhood.” Sungyeol stuck his hands in the pockets of his trousers as they both looked around whilst crossing the street. They arrived at an iron bar gate sandwiched between cobblestone paneled gates. “Who knew Dongwoo hyung lived in such a big house…”

Sunggyu nodded in agreement as he pushed open the gate and they made their way down a paved brick pathway towards an expansive one-story house.

Dongwoo answered the door, with Woohyun right beside him.

Since Sungyeol and Dongwoo already knew each other rather well they greeted with a friendly bro handshake. “Yeah, my omega partner for the project thing couldn’t come because he was busy…sorry about that.”

“Oh no problem!” Dongwoo waved him off.

Woohyun froze for a moment, turning to Sunggyu.

Sungyeol was an alpha. Sungyeol was Sunggyu’s friend _and_ he was an alpha.

“ _So he can be friends with alphas then…?” _Woohyun looked from Sungyeol to Sunggyu, a sense of betrayal setting in. “ _So…was it just me he didn’t like…?”_

Sunggyu greeted Dongwoo with very little friendliness, then glanced at Woohyun, somewhat awkwardly. He still wasn’t sure what place they were in since the head patting in the park incident and tried for a small smile. However, Woohyun turned around with no sign of a greeting in a rather icy manner.

Sunggyu felt like Woohyun had jabbed him in the chest with an ice pick. He’d never experienced Woohyun flat out ignoring him. He’d never experienced Woohyun being anything other than warm. It was strange and unfamiliar and he didn’t like it at all.

Sungyeol and Dongwoo looked between Sunggyu and Woohyun awkwardly.

“Uh…so come inside!” Dongwoo attempted to break the tension and pushed Sunggyu and Dongwoo inside. “We’re all in the back out by the pool.”

-

Sunggyu sat at the patio table and sipped a bottle of beer for what seemed like hours of just watching Woohyun playing around with Dongwoo and their friends being all chummy and laughing together near the pool. In reality it was only about fifteen minutes, but because Sunggyu was annoyed, it felt like longer.

The only time he spent with Woohyun, was essentially just the two of them alone, so Sunggyu wasn’t used to see Woohyun with other people. It felt...well, it didn’t feel great. It wasn’t like Woohyun belonged to him in any sense of the word, and its not like Sunggyu wanted Woohyun to be his or anything. But Woohyun could at least come over to him and stop being so touchy with Dongwoo every five seconds.

It wasn’t like Sunggyu didn’t notice Woohyun not so subtly glancing at him when he thought Sunggyu wasn’t looking. So, what exactly was he waiting for? Sure, things had been awkward between them lately, but that didn’t mean Woohyun needed to give him the cold shoulder.

“ _Was there something else…?”_ Sunggyu wondered, leaning his elbow on the table and prodding at his beer bottle cap. “ _Should I go over there and pat his head again?”_ He pondered, considering the way Woohyun acted before, it seemed like a surefire way to get Woohyun’s attention on him and only him. He dismissed concerns over maybe, possibly sounding weirdly possessive, because that wasn’t it. Or at least that’s what he told himself. He just wanted things to be normal between them, well whatever normal for them even was.

He was about stand up, finally deciding he was going to go through with the head patting plan. Meanwhile, Dongwoo might’ve already gotten a little too tipsy, or perhaps it was just normal, sober Dongwoo, who decided it would be a fun idea to attempt to pick up Woohyun on his shoulders. While he attempted this, with much protest and resistance from Woohyun, they both ended up tumbling over and falling into the pool with a large chlorine filled splash. A bunch of Dongwoo’s friends cheered from the sidelines, while Sunggyu sighed, reluctantly giving up on his plan. There was no way he could go through with it now.

But then Woohyun emerged from the pool and it was like Sunggyu was seeing things in slow motion. Of course Woohyun had to be wearing a white t-shirt—of course he did. It clung to his body, completely see through as water dripped from his wet bangs down his neck. Sunggyu could pretty clearly see the outlines of Woohyun’s abdomen, his chest, the way his nipples jutted out a little too perkily.

Meanwhile Dongwoo, who also had gotten wet, merely pulled off his shirt without a care in the world. Sunggyu watched Woohyun slink off back into the house, assumingly to Dongwoo’s bedroom to dry off and borrow some dry clothes. He got up a little too quickly, causing Sungyeol to turn to him.

“What’s wrong?” Sungyeol asked, beer bottle in one hand.

“Uh…” Sunggyu looked towards the house distractedly. “I’ll…bathroom. I’ll be back.” He murmured and left.

-

Sunggyu moved down the hall briskly with a purpose, the back of his neck hot and his eyes vigilant. He didn’t really know what exactly he was doing or where he was going, and blindly pushed open a wooden paneled door.

It was both the perfect and the worst timing as Woohyun was on the other side of the door, and the first thing Sunggyu saw was the smooth curve of the small of Woohyun’s back, bare and vulnerable. He had a towel around his neck for his hair, and was in the process of removing his soaked pants leg from his ankle.

Woohyun turned around, startled to see Sunggyu there. He had his back to Sunggyu and only his navy blue briefs on at that moment, so naturally Sunggyu’s eyes went straight to his ass. His wet underwear clung to his skin in a way that left absolutely nothing to the imagination and water droplets were gliding down his lean, curvy thighs.

Sure, Sunggyu was lonely and single and probably really needed to get laid, but that didn’t mean he was going to randomly get turned on by some male alpha of all people. Those were his least favorite type of people and generally the type of people he found least attractive. But Woohyun was Woohyun—and he was fucking gorgeous.

“Hyung?”

“ _Oh…fuck.”_

Sunggyu knew he should say something, _anything,_ but he didn’t know why his mouth wasn’t working, except that there may have a been a little bit of drool coming out.

Woohyun turned around now, concerned that Sunggyu wasn’t responding. But that only made things worse for Sunggyu who shamelessly let his eyes glide over Woohyun’s body.

“ _Why are his nipples so red…?”_ Sunggyu wondered in a daze. They were red and way too perky for it to just be because he was cold. Sunggyu had this dark desire to bite them. Sunggyu wanted to bite Woohyun’s thighs—they looked like the perfect combination of muscular and soft, to grasp, to squish, to leave marks. The way water dripped from Woohyun’s hair down his collar bone made Sunggyu feel like he was losing his goddamn mind. He wanted nothing more than to shove him against a wall, and suck on Woohyun’s soft looking skin until he left a mark—no marks, _everywhere_. Maybe then Dongwoo wouldn’t be all over him anymore. Maybe if he knew Woohyun wasn’t his, if he knew who Woohyun belonged to—.

Sunggyu backpedaled his thoughts for a moment. Woohyun wasn’t his, and Woohyun most certainly didn’t belong to him.

 _“What the hell am I thinking…?”_ Sunggyu began to have an internal breakdown. Sometimes he hated being an alpha, a lot. But Woohyun was also an alpha so why was he even thinking of Woohyun in such a way? Nothing made sense anymore and Sunggyu blamed Woohyun for it.

“Enjoying the view?” Woohyun suddenly piped up, wiping the back of his head with the towel around his neck. He wasn’t stupid, and he definitely knew when someone was checking him out. It helped that Sunggyu was the least subtle person ever.

Sunggyu parted his lips, with a dumbfounded look. “…I…”

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you going to let me change out of my underwear in private?” Woohyun folded his arms. He was still upset about finding out Sunggyu was friends with an alpha, and therefore spoke rather curtly.

“I-I’ll stand here.” Sunggyu blurted out.

Woohyun’s face flushed in confusion, clearly not expecting Sunggyu to reply in such a way.

“What? Why!” Woohyun didn’t intend to sound as flustered as he did, but he didn’t understand how Sunggyu could be so shameless. “Please leave—!”

“We need to talk.” Sunggyu interrupted and quickly turned around. “Hurry up and change first…”

Woohyun stared at Sunggyu’s back for a moment to take in the situation before quickly putting on a pair of Dongwoo’s jersey shorts and a t-shirt.

“Ok…” He mumbled to let Sunggyu know that he was dressed.

“Are you mad at me?” Sunggyu blurted out, almost immediately as he turned around. “I mean…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Did I do something…? Because you’re the one who invited me to this party, but you’ve been icing me out since the moment I got here.”

Woohyun’s face became hot with embarrassed guilt. “It’s just…” He tentatively sat down at the edge of Dongwoo’s bed. “You kept saying you hate alphas and then you bring your alpha best friend here…” Woohyun stared down at his hands, “It just hurts…y’know?

“Wait,” Sunggyu sat down next to Woohyun on the edge of the bed. “Are you… _jealous_?”

Woohyun’s ears turned bright red. “What—no!” He stammered. “It’s just…you’re supposedly alpha hater #1 but then bring some _other_ alpha here.”

Sunggyu started laughing, which only served to frustrate and upset Woohyun further.

“Listen,” Sunggyu patted Woohyun’s knee, sending a tingling wave up Woohyun’s shorts. “Sungyeol isn’t my best friend…we barely even hang out outside of work.”

Woohyun’s frown faded slightly. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Sunggyu chuckled, finding the whole thing to be quite amusing. “If anything, you’re closer to being my best friend with how many times you’ve slept over at my house.”

Woohyun’s eyes began to sparkle with affection. “I’m your best friend—?”

“I didn’t say that.” Sunggyu cut him off, but then flashed Woohyun a rather foxy grin. “But man you must _really_ like me, and _really_ want to be my friend to get so jealous.”

“I wasn’t jealous!” Woohyun whined.

“Sure,” Sunggyu shrugged. “Just like how you don’t make porn in your weird shack….”

Woohyun stood up in a state of exasperation. “I told you I don’t do that!”

“Ah!” Sunggyu stood up as well. “Why don’t I just go ask Dongwoo, I bet he’ll know!”

Woohyun’s eyes widened in a panic, but Sunggyu had already made his way out the bedroom door.

-

Woohyun was faster, but Sunggyu was slippery like an eel and dodged Woohyun at every turn on the way back outside.

Sunggyu immediately pulled Dongwoo away from his friend group, slightly out of breath.

“What, what?” Dongwoo’s eyes glittered excitedly at Sunggyu and Woohyun’s sudden high energy.

“What’s Woohyun’s job?” Sunggyu asked with a rather knowing grin.

“Huh?” Dongwoo’s excitement faded to an awkward half smile, as his eyes nervously darted to Woohyun. “He’s…he’s a preschool teacher.”

“I know he doesn’t do that anymore.” Sunggyu folded his arms. “I mean what’s his current job?”

“Oh, that…” Dongwoo laughed nervously, and turned to Woohyun again. “You told him that you—?”

Woohyun immediately shushed him by clamping a hand over Dongwoo’s mouth. “Anyways!”

Unfortunately, Sunggyu wasn’t giving up so easily, and yanked Dongwoo away from Woohyun like he was a stuffed toy they were fighting over. “I know he makes videos, but what kind?”

“He doesn’t know!” Woohyun sputtered, in desperation.

“Well, it’s definitely not something you’d see on youtube if you know what I mean!” Dongwoo blurted out, before Woohyun could shut him up again.

“Oh…I see…ohhh.” Sunggyu nodded seriously, drinking up that very juicy piece of information.

“I think it’s time you head home, hm?” Woohyun was practically begging at this point, and forced a fake smile.

“Home?” Sunggyu grinned, his hands folded behind his back, unassumingly. “Now why would I do that, when I’m finally starting to have fun?”

-

Sunggyu suddenly became suspiciously chatty with Woohyun’s friends and quizzed them to the point of interrogation. To Woohyun it was obvious he was trying to find out Woohyun’s job, but Woohyun’s friends seemed oblivious and just figured Sunggyu was being friendly.

Sunggyu ended up sitting at the patio table with one of Woohyun’s friends, Myungsoo, while Woohyun’s other friends all played in the pool. Woohyun was in the kitchen preparing more snacks, but kept staring out the window anxiously to see what mischief Sunggyu was causing.

“So, Woohyun hyung told us you don’t like alphas?” Myungsoo piped up. “But isn’t Sungyeol-sshi…”

“Ah that…” Sunggyu nodded as he took a swig of his beer. “Actually we’re mostly just work friends…we started working at the same company around the same time and Sungyeol was way different back then. He basically worshipped me and followed me around everywhere like a cute puppy,” Sunggyu sighed dreamily. “I miss those times…”

“A puppy, huh?” Myungsoo glanced at Woohyun, who was now coming towards them with a tray of snacks, looking like an anxious dog that had left his treat outside and was worried someone may have stolen it. “Anyone hungry?” He dumped the tray right between Myungsoo and Sunggyu with a somewhat passive aggressive smile.

“You _made_ all this?” Sunggyu fake gasped, as if he was so impressed by Woohyun’s abilities to place chips and snacks on a tray. “What a good boy!” He reached up and stroked Woohyun’s hair…like he was a puppy.

“ _This dude definitely has a type…”_ Myungsoo shook his head with a sigh.

Woohyun’s snippiness almost instantly faded, and his entire expression softened. He didn’t even know why but the way Sunggyu’s fingers felt, all gentle and warm in his hair was relaxing somewhat. That coupled with the (less than genuine) praise made his skin get all warm and somewhat prickly like pins were burning the back of his neck.

Sunggyu didn’t appear to notice the effect his head pat had on Woohyun and simply reached for the snacks. At that point, Myungsoo had been dragged to the pool by the others and was a lost, forgotten cause. Sunggyu kind of figured Woohyun would snatch up Myungsoo’s seat, but he simply stood there, still in a slight daze.

“Hey, you can sit down y’know?” Sunggyu poked Woohyun’s side.

“Oh.” Woohyun nodded. His gaze fell right on Sunggyu’s lap, and for a moment couldn’t help but think about how comfortable and appealing it looked. Of course, he quickly shook that insane idea from his head and took the seat next to Sunggyu instead.

“So,” Sunggyu leaned his elbow on the table to be a bit closer to hear Woohyun, since the guys in the pool were being rather loud with their splashing and screeching. Woohyun kind of figured Sunggyu would say something more, but instead, he reached out and patted Woohyun’s head again.

But this time was different. Sunggyu’s fingers threaded the back of Woohyun’s fluffy hair down to the nape of his neck. It was far more intimate, and somewhat brazen and it sent a rather electrifying buzz down Woohyun’s spine.

Woohyun gulped, pursing his lips. “What…what are you doing?” He murmured almost too quietly, like it was a sin if anyone saw or heard anything.

Sunggyu hooked his foot around the leg of Woohyun’s chair to pull him closer, and then leaned into his ear.

“You like this, right?” His voice was low, an almost whisper against Woohyun’s warm skin. Woohyun suddenly got the feeling that he was trapped with the way Sunggyu held the back of his neck to make him stay where he was. It was unusually thrilling, and Woohyun’s heart was throbbing with a newfound excitement. He didn’t understand what exactly Sunggyu was trying to do, but he was definitely not going to let it end just like that.

“Yeah,” He hesitantly licked his lower lip as he met Sunggyu’s gaze for a moment, before leaning closer, breathing against the shell of Sunggyu’s ear. “Wanna know what else I like?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a tad longer than usual and I'm wondering if this longer length would be better? Anyways we're going to cover some (most of?) Woohyun's backstory and then finally move on to the the current time!


	11. Eleven

_“Why did I say that? WHY THE HELL DID I JUST SAY THAT?”_

Woohyun’s mind was in a mortified state, but he couldn’t even say or do anything and the way Sunggyu was _staring_ at his mouth made Woohyun think that perhaps the other alpha wasn’t so straight after all.

It was like a staring contest and the one who looks away first loses—the one who gets embarrassed or shy first loses.

Woohyun refused to lose. Woohyun wasn’t necessarily a competitive person but _this_ —he had basically been training his whole life to play this part—the bold one, the initiator.

But Sunggyu didn’t break eye contact for even one moment, and when it looked like he was parting his lips to say something, someone yelled in an impossibly loud manner and then there was a huge splash coming from the pool.

The staring contest was over just like that. It was a draw.

-

While basically everyone had drunkenly passed out in Dongwoo’s bedroom, Woohyun was putting his shoes on at the entrance way.

“Hey,” Sunggyu came up to him, casually taking Woohyun’s forearm, like it belonged to him. “You’re coming with me.”

The unsettling simmering feeling slithering through Woohyun’s body was not something he wished to ponder over, so he brushed Sunggyu off. “Nah, I’ll take the bus.”

Sunggyu made a face like he was talking about committing the gravest of sins. “Its like…past midnight. What bus? Besides,” He looked around to make sure the others were still all out cold, and leaned into Woohyun just enough to make the latter feel even more hot under the collar. “We’re both going to the same place anyways?”

Woohyun stared at his shoes. He wasn’t sure he could handle being in a car alone with Sunggyu right now, let alone sleeping over at his house for one more night.

Woohyun glanced over Sunggyu’s shoulder to the sleeping mass hanging out of the doorway of Dongwoo’s bedroom. “What about your… _friend_?”

Sunggyu couldn’t help but notice the ever so slight disdain in Woohyun’s tone at the word “friend” and it made him smile just a little bit. “He’s fine. He’ll get home on his own tomorrow or whenever he wakes up. Besides,” Sunggyu continued. “Since its late and we’re both pretty wide awake anyways, I figured we could practice.”

“…Practice?”

-

The abandoned warehouse looked completely different at night, and Woohyun was anxious to find out what sort of “practice” Sunggyu had in mind.

Two steps from the car and Woohyun had already quickly clutched onto Sunggyu’s hand at the sound of a night bird croaking in the distance.

Sunggyu allowed it because he knew being out at night scared Woohyun, and he could feel the way the younger man’s hand trembled in his own.

“So, I figured we could test out routes.” Sunggyu began, as soon as they were in front of the building. “Like to see which is the fastest way to get the monsters here from the city. I mean…assuming they are in the city that is?”

“But…” Woohyun blinked and looked around cautiously. “How’re we gonna do that? I mean the only way I can think of is me running from the city all the way here, but that’s…” He trailed off, when he realized Sunggyu was nodding enthusiastically. “No way! I mean I’m pretty athletic, but even I can’t run _that_ far!”

“Exactly.” Sunggyu nodded, with even more enthusiasm. “That’s why it’ll also serve as a way to expand your endurance level!”

“And what if they catch me!” Woohyun argued. “Then what?”

Sunggyu chuckled softly and squeezed Woohyun’s hand slightly. “Relax, I’ll be in my car a few blocks away, following the whole time. If you get tired or anything just call me and I’ll drive up to where you are and come save you.”

Woohyun snorted, crossing his arms. “That sounds like the worst plan ever.”

-

Woohyun was right, it was in fact, the worst plan ever.

He could feel the sweat dripping down the back of his neck as he raced across a closed grocery store and turned a corner. He pressed his back to the brick wall of the shop building, eyes darting both ways as he pulled out his vibrating phone from a side pocket on his black shorts.

The caller ID said: Kim Sunggyu.

Woohyun muttered something under his breath and answered the call.

“Where the hell _are_ you?”

“Shit sorry I was in a parking lot and fell asleep—.”

“You _what?!”_

-

Sunggyu’s car screeched as he slammed the breaks by the curb, as Woohyun rushed towards the passenger door. He practically fell into the car, dripping in sweat, panting hard as he leaned his head back into the head rest.

“So…” Sunggyu smiled sheepishly. “How was it?”

Woohyun tried to glare at him, but Woohyun wasn’t much of a glarer, or rather to Sunggyu he simply did not look intimidating in the least. Perhaps if someone didn’t know Woohyun very well, they may have been slightly worried or even scared of his icy expression, but Sunggyu could only, rather hopelessly, only think one thing.

“ _Ah…cute…”_

But then Woohyun sighed and ran a hand through his messy, moist bangs and Sunggyu unconsciously bit his lip.

 _“Its unfair…”_ He thought, his mind replaying Dongwoo’s party—seeing so much, perhaps _too_ much of Woohyun’s body sans clothes. The fact that he looked like _that_ under all his clothes made Sunggyu angry that clothes existed. It was utterly frustrating that Woohyun existed, Sunggyu decided, because it seemed, he always ended up thinking too many things, and even worse, _feeling_ too many things.

-

When they arrived back to Sunggyu’s apartment, Woohyun neatly placed his shoes by the entrance way before hobbling to the sofa, and laying down in a dramatic fashion like a frazzled old maid fainting after hearing a shocking bit of news. Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel kind of guilty, as it was basically his dumb idea to make Woohyun run so much.

He threw his keys and jacket onto the other sofa, and moved to sit beside Woohyun. Though the moment he grasped Woohyun’s leg, the younger man tensed and shot him a look of confusion.

“What’re you—?”

“Your muscles must be sore, I’ll massage them.” Sunggyu said it so casually like it wasn’t a big deal. But to Woohyun, it was in fact a very, _very_ big deal.

Due to Woohyun’s current situation in life, of having monsters chasing after him at all hours of the night if he stepped foot outside, he had not felt the touch of a good man in a very long time. 

Therefore, he was not in the least prepared for Sunggyu’s hands all over his body, but Sunggyu didn’t seem to care and instead tackled Woohyun’s slight resistance by pressing his palm onto the middle of Woohyun’s chest. He had basically cornered Woohyun between himself and the sofa arm, so that Woohyun couldn’t escape.

“No, seriously, you don’t have to…” Woohyun pursed his lips, his voice trailing off into a mumble, because Sunggyu was essentially sitting in between his legs now and his gentle, yet firm fingers were pressing into his calf muscle and Woohyun was pretty sure he was going to lose it.

It didn’t help matters that Sunggyu kept weirdly staring at him. First it seemed like it was his mouth, but then his eyes lingered lower and Woohyun didn’t fully realize it was because his nipples were already hard, sticking out from under the thin fabric of his t-shirt.

Woohyun held in his breath as Sunggyu’s hands inched up his knee to squeeze his thigh. He awkwardly tried to fold his hands in front of his crotch because he was pretty sure he was already on the way to being fully aroused and he would die of mortification before letting Sunggyu see that.

“Uh…I think that…its…” Woohyun winced slightly, pressing his back into the sofa as much as he could. “It’s good enough, I think…”

But Sunggyu was an insistent (Woohyun was starting to think sadistic) motherfucker and just tilted his head in amusement, refusing to budge. Woohyun swore he actually pressed slightly closer, as his fingers, all long and slender, glided towards Woohyun’s inner thigh.

“Mm…” Sunggyu, subtly, ever so gingerly, slid his fingertips under the hem of Woohyun’s shorts, leaning into Woohyun’s now reddened ear. “You want more, though.”

It wasn’t even a question, it was a flat-out statement, like Sunggyu just _knew_ and Woohyun was in hell. 

The worst part of it all was that Sunggyu was right. Woohyun _did_ want more. He wanted more of Sunggyu’s hands, he wanted Sunggyu’s hands in his shorts and Sunggyu on top of him.

Woohyun’s dick throbbed and his chest ached deep and hard with longing, He was starting to feel like his alpha mask, the confident instigator image he had been crafting for years was being peeled away.

He wanted so badly to not even just ask, but _beg_ for it—for Sunggyu to completely make a mess out of him, until he was sobbing, until his body ached, until he couldn’t come anymore.

But alphas don’t do that. Alphas can’t do that. No one likes an alpha like that.

Woohyun grabbed onto Sunggyu’s wrist to stop his hand from slipping under his shorts.

“No,” He looked straight into Sunggyu’s eyes with a steely gaze. “I don’t.”

Sunggyu looked like he was going to say something, but Woohyun didn’t give him the chance and pushed away from the couch to escape to the bathroom, leaving Sunggyu alone in the living room.

-

When Woohyun started high school, he had to go to a school just for alphas.

The way the school systems were set up had a lot to do with your financial background. The more well-off children, like Sunggyu attended private schools with overall less students and were “integrated” which meant that both alphas and omegas attended and took classes together.

Meanwhile everyone else was thrown into large, overcrowded public schools—one for alphas and the other for omegas.

The way it was generally viewed was that if you were higher on the pay scale it meant you were more well-mannered and less likely to be a horny, aggressive alpha who couldn’t control their urges, or a weepy, weak-willed omega that couldn’t control themselves in heat.

Basically those who were poor had no self-control in the eyes of society.

Woohyun’s family wasn’t exactly poor, but he found that he stayed with his grandma a lot because his mother was always working in order to support him and his older brother, Boohyun.

Because of this, Woohyun tried his very best to not cause any trouble for his already overworked mother and kind grandma who always looked after him.

Even though he had to move around a couple of times to wherever his mother could get a job, Woohyun always tried to adjust. He wasn’t naturally a loud or noisy person, but he learned that the more he took the initiative the more likely it was that people would warm up to him. However, it wasn’t easy doing this in high school he quickly realized.

Woohyun had never taken alpha suppressants or anything similar, even when everyone else had started taking them when they started puberty. Woohyun never felt like he needed to take them, and ironically, due to this, he was the smallest boy in his class. He didn’t even realize at the time how weird it was that he showed less signs of negative alpha behavior, despite _not_ taking suppressants compared to his peers.

Since Woohyun was significantly less aggressive or hormone driven than other male students, he ended up receiving a lot of positive attention from girls. Unfortunately, the boys in his school didn’t appreciate how Woohyun seemed to be the only one the girls wanted to talk to or be around.

Woohyun, however, realized that while he liked girls, he didn’t like them in the way the other boys did. Instead, he found that his eyes always wandered towards another boy from his school’s soccer team while they were in the team locker room every afternoon after practice. Sometimes the boy smiled at him when no one else was looking and it made Woohyun’s heart sing. Soon enough lingering glances, turned to subtle, casual touches, which turned to secret meet-ups in the locker room with clumsy, hormone driven kissing and touches.

Woohyun felt like he was living out the romantic stories he read about in books and watched in movies.

One day when Woohyun was walking home from school some of the other alpha boys cornered him. They had heard rumors that he liked boys and decided he was going to be their new punching bag. Woohyun was much smaller and he had no chance, falling to the hot concrete after a particularly hefty punch from the biggest boy in the group. But then he saw him—the boy—the love of his life—walking along the sidewalk behind the bullies. He had stopped, and finally realized it was Woohyun they were beating up. Their eyes met, and Woohyun’s begged him to help with his gaze.

Suddenly a girl he didn’t recognize skipped up the boy, entangling her arm with his. The boy sent him this guilty sort of look, and then, just like that, he left with the girl.

He left Woohyun alone, to be at the mercy of the bullies.

After that day, the boy avoided Woohyun at all costs up until the day they graduated. He wouldn't even look at Woohyun. It was like Woohyun was dead to him, like he simply didn't exist anymore.

When Woohyun went to university, he was relieved to be entering a place where alphas and omega could co-exist, and he truly believed things would be different.

Woohyun didn’t think he was that picky and didn’t necessarily have a type, or at least he didn’t think he did. But somehow, the men he liked, always ended up being alphas, and alphas never wanted to date him. Alpha men only ever dated omegas or alpha women and that was the way it was.

Woohyun didn’t appreciate the way it was.

Sure, he tried to follow the status quo and went out with and even dated several omega men. It was fine, it was great even. But he always felt like something was missing—like it was never completely natural. He was always the one doing the giving, the holding, the affection. It was draining, and it always felt like he had to put his entire self into a relationship in order for it to even have a chance. Whenever an omega boyfriend would have their heat he would always try his best to satisfy all their needs, but was almost always criticized to some level because his endurance couldn’t last. Woohyun never took alpha suppressants, and that ironically made him smaller than the average alpha, and less able to do all the things during heat that an alpha was expected to do.

Because of this happening and his constant comparison to other alphas, he started to wonder why exactly not taking alpha suppressants would make him, well, less “alpha-like.” It made no sense, as alpha suppressants were supposed to be used to minimize a lot of the powerful attributes that came with the alpha stereotype.

Nothing about being an alpha made sense to Woohyun. The only thing he could say for sure is that he was probably never going to be enough. He was too much for another alpha, he wasn’t enough for an omega. He was just Woohyun, and he was tired of being lonely.

-

The next morning, Woohyun and Sunggyu sat across from each other at the kitchen table and ate their breakfast in an unbearably awkward silence.

“So,” Woohyun cleared his throat, unable to take any more of the quiet. “Uh—.”

“I’m sorry.” Sunggyu blurted out suddenly, staring red faced into his coffee mug. “I…the thing…last night—.”

“N-No!” Woohyun’s eyes widened, his cheeks quickly warming with color. “That’s—.”

“I was—it was, I mean I was just trying to tease you, but I—I went too far…” Sunggyu averted his eyes, shame engulfing him like darkness swallowing the sunset.

Woohyun stared at him, seemingly taken aback, before looking down. He was hurt and it was obvious and Sunggyu felt like absolute shit for lying.

But it wasn’t like he could say otherwise. It wasn’t like he could say that he _wanted_ to touch Woohyun last night—that he wanted to rip Woohyun’s shorts off and kiss his pretty mouth.

 _Disgusting_.

The constant nagging voice in his head whispered darkly. He rubbed his head with a deep sigh.

“Ah…it all makes sense now.” Woohyun suddenly spoke up, interrupting the uncomfortable silence. Sunggyu looked up from his cup, which he had had his gaze set on. “No wonder you’re usually so grumpy and short tempered, it’s because you’re pent up.”

Sunggyu blinked incredulously at the other man, his face turning a light shade of red. “Wh-What…?”

“Yeah, like…” Woohyun’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “You don’t want to fuck an omega because that would make you seem like other alphas, and you don’t want to fuck another alpha because apparently you hate alphas, so therefore you’re a horny mess—.”

“Y-You….” Sunggyu sputtered, speechlessly. How Woohyun managed to bounce back so quickly _and_ manage to almost always see right through Sunggyu made Sunggyu want to hate him so bad. But he was quickly realizing it was one of the many things about Woohyun that somehow made him irresistible.

“So, basically, you need to get laid.” Woohyun concluded with a decisive nod.

“Oh,” Sunggyu tilted his head curiously. “Are you offering?”

It was Woohyun’s turn to become flustered as he awkwardly snorted. “As if…” He mumbled, staring down at his hands in his lap. “You hate alphas so—.”

“I don’t hate _you_.” Sunggyu offered. He didn’t even know himself what exactly he was getting at, but making Woohyun squirm gave him a weird bit of enjoyment. “ _Its probably because he’s so cute…”_ Sunggyu thought in a daze.

“I’m touched,” Woohyun put a hand to his chest, in a false sense of bravado. “But unfortunately, there is a long line to get into my bed so...”

He was expecting some sort of eye roll or scoff, but instead, unexpectedly, Sunggyu was...smiling? It was a subtle sort of smile and nod like he was humoring Woohyun somehow. 

"I'm sure you do." Sunggyu took a sip of his coffee, and Woohyun couldn't help but feel hot under the collar of his shirt all the way up to his ears. 

He did not know what to do with this. Disgust or annoyance, he was used to, he could handle. But this...

 _"Why didn't he just act disgusted with me..."_ Woohyun's chest began to ache with a longing that he knew he wasn't allowed to feel.

There was suddenly an uncomfortable lump in Woohyun’s throat and he couldn’t come up with a reply. He cleared his throat and got up from his chair. “Uh, anyways…I guess we should try capturing the monster alpha people soon…or at least practice and figure out a legit route for me to get to the warehouse…maybe tonight..."

"Ah, right." Sunggyu got up and moved to put his mug in the sink. "But maybe you should decide the route this time, or find a shorter way to lead the monsters to the warehouse." He smiled when Woohyun made a dramatic show of massaging his thigh.

 _"I'll protect him..."_ Sunggyu told himself. " _I have to."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEWWO wow its been ages since the last update sorry :( but thank u for reading and we've finally reached the present time which was the first part of the first chapter yay. Also at this point its enemies to people who are horny for eachother to lovers i guess idk man u_u


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